KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Social media helped Kansas City, Missouri, detectives connect a Kansas City, Kansas, man to a fatal shooting in March.
Demarion Nichols, 19, is charged in Jackson County, Missouri, with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
KCMO police were called around 7:30 p.m. on March 26 to the 3700 block of St. John.
When officers arrived, they found 21-year-old Tracy Williams dead in the parking lot of a convenience store.
Court documents indicate 11 spent shell casings were recovered from the scene.
One day before the shooting, Williams told his friend, who was a witness, he didn’t feel safe and wanted to move.
The witness told detectives that Williams had asked to stay with her the night of the shooting, so she picked him up and drove him to the convenience store.
She stayed inside the car while Williams went inside.
During that time, Nichols backed into a parking spot next to the witness.
When Williams exited the store, Nichols got out of his car, stared at Williams until he had passed him and shot him. Nichols continued to shoot even after Williams collapsed, per court documents.
Nichols then fled the scene.
The entire incident was captured on the store’s surveillance video, court documents stated.
In the days following the homicide, investigators were able to identify Nichols as the suspect through social media, a KCK police report and the registration documents of the vehicle he was driving.
Nichols posted a video on Instagram about an hour before the shooting in which he displayed a gun and was observed wearing a similar head covering as in the video surveillance of the shooting.
Additionally, police learned Nichols’ work phone pinged in the location of the homicide at the time of the homicide, according to court documents.
Nichols is being held in the Jackson County Detention Center on no bond.
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Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
